Tuesdays, TVSMCs and Tuttle Tattle

Networking is front of mind this week for a number of reasons.

Jule Meyer, Ariadne Capital (picture: nextwomen.com)

Firstly, the Dragons Den ‘on-line’ was on television last night, with Julie Meyer (Ariadne Capital) one of the featured entrepreneurs.

I used to handle PR for First Tuesday (at the now defunct Gnash Communications), the hugely successful networking event that was eventually sold on to a firm of investors.

At the height of the dotcom boom, First Tuesday networked entrepreneurs and exciting new businesses together in an unstructured, informal environment. It moved on from its original premise of a quiet, business like networking event to a mad crazy weekly rush of entrepreneurial excitement – some of based on a kind of ‘gold rush’ mentality, some of it based on genuine, simple ‘why didn’t anyone think of that before?’ brilliance.

What struck me hardest was a completely missed opportunity to showcase some genuine on-line and digital talent coming out of the UK at present. Here is the queen of the digital entrepreneurs, a shrewd business woman with unparalleled understanding of this space, being pitched to by very ‘real world’ businesses: milliners and golfers.

The only thing on-line about it appeared to be the submission of video pitches on-line, and it certainly didn’t have an ‘on-line’ vibe. It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

I had already spent the morning at TVSMC (Thames Valley Social Media Café), which does what it says on the box, pulling together some of the finest minds in the Thames Valley – well, maybe I exaggerate, but it certainly has huge potential to do so.

If founder Benjamin Ellis can sustain the momentum, there is a huge talent base stretching right along the M4 corridor from London to Reading and beyond that could make TVSMC a powerful force not only for innovation, but also, in the growing spirit of on-line co-operation, for finding new solutions to some lingering old problems around the way people do business and deliver services.

And in this spirit, it’s worth mentioning my trip to Tuttle this morning.

Ale 2.0, a group which has captured the social nature of some on-line engagement (beer and tweets!), has noted the incredible level of talent that has been meeting at its regular get-togethers. Many of the ‘alers’ have agreed to offer their services to small charities – anywhere between an hour and a day of their time and skills – to benefit a small, lesser known charity.

Also emerging from my conversations was a word from the wise Lloyd Davis on TVSMC. Interesting, particularly in light of the First Tuesday experience, to hear his take on regional ‘Tuttles’: that they are just spaces which will find their own style and own way.

Tuttle is Tuttle – uniquely London. My own feeling is that it will be impossible to replicate. Trying to create direct copies will simply spread the talent rather than gather it in a single place, which is it’s appeal in the first place.

The Thames Valley boasts some of the hottest tech talent in the UK, and is home to some of the biggest and most exciting (and any combination of the two) companies in the UK. Something unique must surely emerge? But maybe that’s a conversation for another time, or maybe a debate for the TVSMC wiki.

Which leaves me with just one more bit of ‘Tuttle tattle’ to blog.

I don’t consider myself a gambling woman. At least, let’s put it this way. I love gambling and could very easily become addicted. My own rule is that I will only gamble what I can afford to spend on the entertainment.

In this sense, dog racing is great – short bursts of cheap, high adrenaline entertainment. And gambling in casinos in countries with high exchange to the pound is always great – I once staggered from a casino in the Dominican Republic at 6am having spent ‘thousands’ gambling, but only about twenty pounds worse off than when I went in. (Not sure about the ethics of this, on reflection.) I digress.

I have placed a bet with ‘unknown man’. He has a project in the works that could create “a huge shift in everything”. It’s simple to do, but he can’t find the motivation to push the button and set it live.

If my bet (of a bottle of Freixenet) that he won’t have done it by next Friday fails to motivate him, I shall be wishing that I’d bet him a bottle of Bolly (how very PR!). If it does, by this time next week, our lives will be changed and I may have an additional PR project.

Now those, I think, are great odds.

Related links:
TVSMC: Chris Whelton blog post

Ariadne Capital finally puts skin in the game with a £20m fund (uk.techcrunch.com)
The Tuttle Club (taylordavidson.com)

Tags: entrepreneurs

tech & telecoms | claireatwaves | October 2, 2009 5:56 pm

4 Comments

By John Duffy, October 2, 2009 @ 6:14 pm

Hi Claire

Great post, a decent read to finish the week

I know exactly what you mean about Dragon’s Den & the online version receiving “traditional” pitches. But I’m not sure how many online businesses want less than £50k. I suspect that most will be aiming for more than that (rightly or wrongly!!), and so wouldn’t want to risk asking for less investment than they want simply to gain the online exposure and investor insight.
By admin, October 2, 2009 @ 6:54 pm

Good point re £50k. Mind you, the golf club guy seemed to think he could do a PR campaign for £30k, which might be true for a short sharp shock, or if he used a freelancer [ahem!] but a big agency on a sustained basis…. still, guess the dragons will sort him out!